Fred Meyer Fund grants $10K for Soldotna Boys & Girls Club Power Hour

Posted: Wednesday, December 03, 2008

For many years one of the most popular programs at the Soldotna Boys & Girls Club is their "Power Hour." A comprehensive homework help program where older children as well as volunteers help kids finish their homework before they go home so they are ready and excited with time to enter into family activities. The Power Hour program recently got a $10,000 dollar boost thanks to a grant from the Fred Meyer Fund.

At the Boys & Girls Club Power Hour, older kids help younger ones with their homework,

Power Hour is a nationally recognized program developed by the Boys & Girls Clubs of America to provide club members with the support, resources and guidance necessary to complete their homework and start each school day with confidence. The program is free to all club members and provides a structured time and place for club staff to help members with this important aspect of the educational process. Club members earn Power Points which may be used to obtain Power Rewards - prizes, special activities and incentives. Funds received from The Fred Meyer Fund for this program would be used for staffing, supplies and Power Hour rewards.

"The Fred Meyer Fund was particularly impressed by the successful track record of the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Kenai Peninsula and its programs," said Glynda Brockhoff, philanthropy coordinator for Fred Meyer stores and The Fred Meyer Fund in a press release. "We hope this grant will help the Soldotna Club continue the important work it is doing to enrich the health of the community. We are proud to be part of the Soldotna community and are committed to helping where we can."

According to Kim Lee, Soldotna club director the incentive based program has had exciting results, "Just like we enjoy getting a paycheck for our efforts, kids like to have a reward for doing their homework so the kids earn Power Hour points as the complete their homework and they are able to buy things at our Power store with those points and they also compete for events and other competitions such as the one coming up this spring where we will be taking the top point achievers the H2Oasis is Anchorage," Lee told the Dispatch. The current point leader is 9-year-old Olivia who enthusiastically says, "Power Hour rocks!" Volunteers are also needed at the Soldotna Boys & Girls Club says Lee, "We're serving about 120 kids right now and we have a separate reading room where kids go get help with their reading so we are looking for volunteers even folks with only a half hour a week or a day it would be wonderful to have them come in and supervise the reading room while kids are doing their homework," she said.

The Fred Meyer Fund assists nonprofit organizations dedicated to helping children and reducing hunger in communities served by 128 Fred Meyer stores in Oregon, Washington, Alaska, and Idaho. In 2007, The Fred Meyer Fund awarded $1.7 million in grants.

Fred Meyer is a division of The Kroger Co., which is one of the nation's largest food retailers. Fred Meyer contributes more than $8 million to communities across the Northwest each year through grants from The Fred Meyer Fund as well as product donations, cash donations and sponsorships. The Fred Meyer Fund has awarded grants totaling over $9 million since it began awarding grants in December 1998. For more information call 1-800-858-9202, ext. 5605. To learn more about volunteering for Power Hour reading room call Kim Lee at the Soldotna Boys & Girls Club at 260-4342.